The Holdovers - Themes & ideas

The Holdovers uses the relationship between Angus and Hunham to show how experience is interpreted differently across generations, shaping both misunderstanding and connection. Set in the early 1970s, a period marked by a pronounced “generation gap” intensified by the Vietnam War, the film situates this tension within a broader historical moment defined by distrust between youth and authority.

While Angus resists having his experience minimised through comparisons to the past, Hunham’s reliance on historical analogy initially frames suffering as universal and continuous. However, the narrative gradually reframes this divide. In the museum scene, Hunham’s claim that “each generation thinks it invented debauchery or suffering or rebellion” suggests not dismissal, but continuity, positioning history as a way of contextualising rather than invalidating present experience.

It's not just Hunham who appears incurious about the experiences of those not from his generation. Throughout The Holdovers, Angus at different times appears shocked, surprised, and eventually curious by revaletions that his teacher has experienced desire, a near-marriage, and an academic scandal. This reflects how young people are often guilty of being uninterested or uncaring about the lives or experiences of their teachers or those older than them.

By the conclusion of the narrative, Hunham and Angus have shifted from opposition to recognition, suggesting that shared understanding can replace division across generations.

History functions as more than an academic subject in The Holdovers; it is a lens through which characters understand themselves and the world around them. The narrative explores how personal, institutional and national histories shape identity, while examining the tension between learning from the past and being trapped by it.

As a history teacher, Paul Hunham initially treats history as the ultimate source of wisdom and authority. He reveres the ancient Greeks and Romans and uses historical anecdotes to explain contemporary issues. To Hunham, history provides a perspective from which present concerns become small within the broader sweep of human experience. This devotion to the past serves as a form of self-protection. He is more comfortable discussing long-dead civilisations than facing the challenges of life in the present.

The irony of Hunham's character is that, despite dedicating his life to history, he fails to recognise that history is constantly being made around him. His tendency to dismiss students' concerns through historical comparisons reveals a limited understanding of history's significance. Only through his relationship with Angus does he come to value individual lives and personal experiences as histories worthy of attention. By confronting his own past, which he has long carried as a source of shame, he begins to free himself from it rather than allowing it to determine his future. This shift becomes particularly clear after Angus's visit to his father, when Hunham rejects his usual historical fatalism and insists that:

Hunham: "in real life, your history does not have to dictate your destiny."

The narrative ultimately tests this belief through Hunham's own circumstances. Although his departure from Barton might conventionally be viewed as a failure, it also represents a break from the predictable trajectory shaped by his past, suggesting a loosening of the fatalism he once embraced. His future remains open rather than predetermined.

Angus and Mary similarly demonstrate the influence of personal history. Angus struggles with feelings of abandonment and instability, while Mary lives with the grief of losing her son in the Vietnam War. Although both are shaped by experiences that cannot be changed, The Holdovers portrays healing as emerging through the sharing of these histories and the human connections that follow.

The setting of Barton Academy expands the text's exploration of history. Its traditions, reputation and alumni network represent institutional history as a form of power that helps shape students' futures. The film narrative therefore shows how history can operate not only as memory but also as a mechanism through which privilege and inequality are reproduced across generations.

Set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, the film highlights the connection between personal and national history. Mary's grief is a direct consequence of the conflict, reminding viewers that history is not merely found in textbooks but experienced by ordinary people. This context reinforces the central idea that the past is always intertwined with the present.

Ultimately, The Holdovers presents history as both burden and guide. Through Hunham, Angus and Mary, the narrative suggests that growth comes not from escaping the past or living within it, but from understanding it well enough to move forward. History shapes identity, yet it does not have to determine destiny.

Significantly, Payne's use of 1970s-inspired cinematography, music and visual design embeds history within the film's form. By resembling a film from the era in which it is set, The Holdovers encourages viewers to experience the past as something immediate and alive rather than distant and abstract

Stoicism is an ancient philosophy that can be traced back to ancient Greece, and is often considered more a guide to living than a philosophy, as it focuses on self-discipline, moral improvement, and logical thought. Interpretations and readings of stoicism have also focused on ideas of acceptance and control; concentrate on what you can control, and let go of what you cannot control.

One of stoicisms champions was Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, the author of Meditations, the same book Hunham gifts Angus (and Mary) for Christmas. Note this use of intertextuality in the film, and that the appearance of this text is very much deliberate.

Hunham: "For my money, it's like the Bible, the Koran, and the Bhagavad Gita all rolled up into one. And the best part is not one mention of God."

Hunham treats Meditations with great reverence (note we also see a shot of an entire box full of copies towards the end of the film), suggesting he subscribes to Aurelius’s vision of stoicism and the idea that through internal resolve and logical thinking, ones circumstances can be endured. It could also be argued that Hunham’s subscription to this philosophy may partially explain not just his ability to ‘endure’ his circumstances (trapped at Barton, unable to teach elsewhere or rise above his station), but also his inability to break free from said circumstances. It's suggested he is perhaps more focused on enduring, than overcoming, and moving on.

By the end of The Holdovers, Hunham has fulfilled his potential as a teacher, and, despite losing his job, heads off into the great unknown - a life beyond the grounds of Barton. The gifting of an empty journal to write his own monograph is also symbolic of Hunham potentially writing his own interpretation of the world and history, rather than simply reading about it.

Angus: “Left you with one, so the loss would sting that much more"

With this idea of stoicism in mind, the scene with Alex Ollerman and his glove takes on new meaning. When Teddy steals and throws Alex’s gloves away, Alex responds by throwing his remaining glove into the nearby river.

This exemplifies stoicism; Alex refuses to be victim and be left with one glove (useless when not in a pair) as a reminder of what has been taken away from him, and decides to control what he can. He can shed the remaining glove, and let go of what is outside his control.

When Principal Woodrup hands the school keys over to Hunham in his office, and thanks for him in advance for looking after the holdovers, Hunham says:

Hunham: Well, non nobis solum nati sumus I suppose... not for ouserlves are we born.

Woodrup: I'm guessing that's Cicero

This Latin motto is attributed to Cicero, another Roman statesmen and philisopher, who lived and died before Marcus Aurelius, but whose ideas also had connections to stoicism, as the quote relates to another stoic ideal, that of cosmopolitanism - we are all part of a broader, single community, and should not operate as self-interested individuals.

Although Hunham might believe on some level he is selfless in dedicating himself to the education of others, the line is delivered with the knowledge he has been forced to sacrifice his own holiday break unfairly (a fellow teacher has lied to get out of 'his turn' and said his mother has lupis). In the scene immediately following where he belittles his students, it's apparent he is lacking the kind of selflessness implied by Cicero's quote.